Monday, September 14, 2015

I was perusing through eBay this past weekend, as I am wont to do, and came across an original sports editorial cartoon featuring longtime Dodger manager Walter Alston. Check it out above. See the auction here.

Likely draw in the early part of 1973, the cartoon points out how difficult it is to manage one club for a long period of time, and tips an Uncle Sam cap to Alston for his ability to do it for 20 consecutive seasons at that time. As you know, Walter Alston would stay at the helm of the Dodger ship for 23 consecutive seasons before retiring; starting from 1954 to 1976. Amazingly, he never signed a multi-year contract. Instead, he signed 23 one-year contracts with the Dodgers. Vin Scully had this to say about him:

"I always imagined him to be the type who could ride shotgun on a stage
through Indian territory. He was all man and two yards tall. He was
very quiet, very controlled. He never made excuses. He gave the players
the credit and he took the blame. He was so solid, so American."

The artist is Alan Maver and he began his career in the early 40's as an assistant to former Olympian Feg Murray. Murray won a bronze medal in the 110 meter hurdles during the 1920 Summer Games and went on to become a sports cartoonist and columnist at the LA Times. Maver would soon become a prolific syndicated cartoonist - seeing his work in newspapers throughout the country.

The Dodgers added another player to their September roster. Called up from the minors is versatile infielder Ronald Torreyes (pronounced tuh-RAY-us). Per a Dodger press release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers today recalled infielder Ronald Torreyes (#59) from Triple-A Oklahoma City, increasing the number of players on their active roster to 35.

Torreyes, 23, will be making his Major League debut in his sixth professional season after being acquired by Los Angeles on June 12 from Toronto in exchange for cash consideration. Torreyes combined to hit .261 with 18 doubles, four home runs and 36 RBI in 110 minor league games this season with Double-A Tulsa, Triple-A Oklahoma City, Houston’s Triple-A Fresno and Toronto’s Double-A New Hampshire. He has a .298 career batting average with 22 home runs and 253 RBI in 612 minor league games in six professional seasons with the Reds (2010-11), Cubs (2012-13), Astros (2013-15) and Blue Jays (2015) organizations. He’s primarily appeared at second base (367 games) during the course of his career, but has also played shortstop (144 games), third base (62 games) and the outfield (22 games), with a .974 combined fielding percentage. The Venezuela native was originally signed by the Reds as a non-drafted free agent on Feb. 23, 2010.

As circumstances would have it, Torreyes made his Major League debut yesterday afternoon. The days starting second baseman, Jose Peraza, left the game at the bottom of the fifth inning due to an apparent injury. As you know, he has been having trouble with his hamstring the past week. So, Torreyes came in and made the most of it. He handled numerous plays on the field and recorded his first Major League hit on a double down the left field line off Diamondbacks pitcher Randall Delgado in the seventh inning. Watch it below.
Your browser does not support iframes.Video Link:

Overall, he went 1 for 2, and became the 55th person to play for the Dodgers this season - a franchise record. Torreyes is also the 100th Venezuelan to appear in a MLB game this season - also a new record.

In celebration of Torreyes' promotion to the Dodgers I made the above fantasy card
for him. I used a photograph from Diario La Verdad on twitter and the 1971 Topps Baseball card
design.

Justin Turner and the Dodgers had a grand ol' time in Arizona yesterday. Turner recorded two hits and an RBI while the Dodgers won their second game of the three game series to drop their "Magic Number" to 13. Best yet, Zach Greinke continued to build on his Cy Young bonifides by pitching eight shut out innings. Via Steve Gilbert and Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:

"They're an aggressive team and Zack just teases you with borderline pitches and that's why he gets so many ground balls against left-handed hitters," said catcher A.J. Ellis, who homered for the eventual decisive run. "Zack executes so well on the bottom half of the zone."

Via Don Mattingly: "I don't know what the chatter is with Corey and that position, but he's
going to be really good. At this point, where we're at, we don't plan …
Andrew and the front office hasn't come to me and said, put him in
there every day. The plan has always been to give Jimmy days and J.T.
days. He's played more than we thought because of injuries and done a
good job."

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“There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey. There’s nothing like it in sports. I don’t care that I’ve never been anywhere else. I don’t care. There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey.” -- A.J. Ellis